asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to his answer of 30 November 1981, Official Report, column 39, if he will publish his Department's best estimate of the age participation rate on full-time and sandwich courses in higher education in 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84 and 1984–85.

On the assumption that the proportion of young entrants remains the same as in 1980–81, the estimates of the age participation rate for young home entrants to full-time and sandwich courses of higher education in Great Britain are as follows:

	percentage
* 1979–80	12·4
* 1980–81	12·7
†1981–82	12·9
1982–83	11·7
1983–84	11·4
1984–85	11·2
* actual
† provisional

These figures are consistent with the projections of home student numbers that the Department is currently assuming for the purposes of estimating expenditure on student awards in tomorrow's White Paper on Public Expenditure. They supercede those given to the hon. Member on 30 November 1981.